Remember to Smile
Meet my brother Staff Sgt. Randolph (Randy) Policar. He’s in the Army. He’s some sort of Jump Master and he’s also in the HALO programalso known as Military Free Fall..
Part of his daily job is to jump out of big military airplanes high above the skies, around 12,500 feet. He’s been in the Army for at least 14-15 years and has tons of jumps under his belt. One of the things I asked my brother was, “Don’t you get scared or nervous before jumping out?” He replied with a very cool and simple, “yeah.” He then went into great detail how he overcomes his anxiety before and during the flight up to the drop zone. Want to know what he said? “Smile!”
So why am I talking about my brother and smiling. Well its simple really. You see when I first started downhill racing, my nerves would be all messed up. I would get nervous and during my race runs I’d make simple mistakes that cost me time. Since I had this pre-race anxiety, I called my brother for advice. I figured the guy did something far more dangerous than downhill racing. That’s when we told me to smile. It took me a while to get used to the notion of smiling during practice and race runs. But here’s something that I discovered. When I would try to get into the zone or focus too hard, my body would stiffen up, my grip on the bars were too hard and my reaction time was slower. But when I started smiling more, I noticed I was more limber, reaction was way quicker and I ended up having more fun!
Don’t get me wrong, this smiling thing isn’t just for downhill riding/racing. This can be executed when tackling a technical XC trail. Just check out the big smile on Priscilla’s face while racing Super D.
Try it today, try smiling as much as you can while riding, and you’ll see how that translates to your experience.
I’m glad that helped you out. And thanks for making me look good.
Dang! I can see who got all the good looks in your family.
In that photo of Priscilla, that looks like ONE BRUTAL CLIMB. Is it the angle of the shot or does one really have to traverse a freakin’ wall?!?
On that race, Priscilla had to go down and back up what you see. You carry enough speed going down to where you don’t need to pedal. In fact, now that I recall, that section was used at the first DH race.
Real good advice from your brother RL.And as you do more and more races and your level of racing becomes better you will feel more relaxed.Don’t get me wrong thow even I will get a little nervous at big races. For me I will go away from everyone and get into my JEDI meditation state and become one with the earth then when I’m so relaxed I start to fall asleep I’m in my zone or I simply have a BEER to relax me if I’m really nervous.
And to your brother Randy cool job you have.With HALO are you also HAHO qualifyed.Keep up the good work.
Haha, Lynchmob is gay.
Randy, your looking good :-))) Keep it up…
Thanks guys!
Good tip, that is definately something I’m going to try.
Hey Randy, I don’t suppose you used to own a Honda CX500 did you? I’m trying to get a hold of either you or Joseph Bogie and this seems to be the closest I can find.
Ron,
I do believe my brother had a Honda a while back. It was either in PA or NC. Anyhow, I’ve forwarded your info to him, by the way, you should try Facebook.
RL,
Thank you for forwarding this to him. My wife is on FaceBook so I’ll give that a shot. Joe told me Randy gave him the bike and now I am in possession of it so I was hoping to get paperwork cleared up.
Thanks again, and cool site! Makes me want to dust off my old Gary Fischer. Ha! I don’t even know if I spelled that right, that’s how long ago I took a ride!